Although the genre is fairly reliable theatrically, when a sci-fi movie goes wrong at the box office, it is usually in spectacular fashion. Take, for a recent example, The Mandalorian and Grogu, which was supposed to be the spiritual opening of a big summer of cinema. Instead, the movie tanked in theaters, despite the success of the series it is based on and the overall Star Wars franchise. However, the huge viral triumph of both A24’s Backrooms and Obsession left The Mandalorian and Grogu struggling for relevance.
The big-screen debut of Pedro Pascal‘s titular bounty hunter has earned $344 million worldwide against a production budget of $165 million, which doesn’t account for a likely enormous marketing and commercial investment. It seems as if each year fields its own sci-fi flop, with one of 2018’s even killing a $1 billion franchise. The film in question is Pacific Rim: Uprising, a sequel to 2013’s Pacific Rim, and the second installment overall in the franchise ahead of the animated series Pacific Rim: The Black.
Spartacus and Daredevil‘s Steven S. DeKnighttook to the director’s chair for Pacific Rim: Uprising, taking over the reins from Guillermo del Toro, who had won both Best Picture and Best Director at the Academy Awards the year prior for The Shape of Water. Uprising, which follows John Boyega‘s Jake as he is offered one last chance to live up to his father’s legacy, also stars Cailee Spaeny, Scott Eastwood, Adria Arjona, Jing Tian, and Zhang Jin. Eight years later, Pacific Rim: Uprising is a surprising streaming hit, officially ranking as one of the ten most-streamed movies on HBO Max in the U.S., at the time of writing.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky
Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🏜️Paul Atreides
🖖Capt. Kirk
✊Princess Leia
🔦Ellen Ripley
🔥Max Rockatansky
01
How do you lead when the stakes couldn’t be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.
02
What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.
03
What is the thing you’d sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.
04
How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.
05
You’re facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you’re the only one who sees it defines everything.
06
What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they’d pay it again.
07
How do you feel about the rules of the world you’re in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What’s yours?
08
When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you.
Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…
Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.
Arrakis · Dune
Paul Atreides
You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you’re capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.
You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn’t ask for but can’t escape.
Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won’t, is exactly you.
USS Enterprise · Star Trek
Captain Kirk
You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you’ve always believed there’s a third option nobody else has thought of yet.
You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you’ve earned it.
Kirk’s genius isn’t tactical — it’s human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.
The Rebellion · Star Wars
Princess Leia
You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you’re fearless, but because giving up simply isn’t something you’re capable of.
You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you’ve never looked back.
Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.
The Nostromo · Alien
Ellen Ripley
You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone’s hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.
You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
Ripley’s heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn’t have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn’t there.
When it counts, you don’t flinch. That’s everything.
The Wasteland · Mad Max
Max Rockatansky
You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.
You don’t ask for help, don’t need validation, and don’t wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it’s earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.
How Badly Did ‘Pacific Rim: Uprising’ Flop?
Although the film is known as a disaster,Pacific Rim: Uprising didn’t perform perhaps as poorly as many would’ve suspected. Against a reported production budget of $155 million, the film made $291 million at the global box office, split between a domestic haul of $60 million and a further $230 million from overseas markets. The movie managed to open at #1 at the U.S. box office, but quickly dropped to #5 in its second weekend.
Pacific Rim: Uprising is available to stream now on HBO Max. Make sure to stay tuned to Collider for all the latest streaming stories.
